Wsu vs Harvard: Series swept by WSU, it is baseball season!

[SB Shock]

I still am a little concerned about the bullpen

There has to be a lot of concern about the WSU pitching staff that has given up 8+ runs in 4 of the last 5 games.

[Rosewood]

Yes, the bullpen has me worried. However, we have the coaching to straighten that out.

(Where was this offense with last years pitching?!)

[KC Shox]

I think this offense shows up against the likes of LeMoyne, Harvard and some NAIA college from Iowa, but when we go back to playing Top 50 teams agains, we'll probably start seeing the same offensive struggles. This year, we'll have to rely on our starters even more by the looks of how poorly our relief pitching is shaping up.

[SB Shock]

but when we go back to playing Top 50 teams agains, we'll probably start seeing the same offensive struggles.

I think your wrong. This team is different offensively and is going to be better than last year team.

But that increase in offense may be offset by how bad the relief pitching is. I think it's safe to say the Womak is not a closer - unfortunately I'm not sure if there is one on this team.

[Harold_Shox]

An amazing win. Thanks guys for all the updates.

[tripleshock]

I think this offense shows up against the likes of LeMoyne, Harvard and some NAIA college from Iowa, but when we go back to playing Top 50 teams agains, we'll probably start seeing the same offensive struggles. This year, we'll have to rely on our starters even more by the looks of how poorly our relief pitching is shaping up.

Have to agree with this - - at this point, the offensive juggernaut looks pretty unstoppable against teams with RPI over 200 or so, or against teams with no pitching or defense...but maybe not quite so much against anyone else, at least not to this point.

We shall see, but it may be a bit early to proclaim this offense as being good enough to carry a team with relief pitching as suspect as it's been so far....

Teams with actual bullpens don't often blow 4 or 5 run leads in the last couple of innings.....(and today, that applies to both teams that were out there).

[1972Shocker]

Wow! What a come back. I had to attend a function at 7:00 PM right after Harvard scored two in the 9th to go up 10 - 5. No way was I expecting to be reading about a DH sweep tonight.

Matt Smith just doesn't seem to have it. Not sure what is going on with Andy Womack.

May have to thing about moving Capra back to the pen and go with Tim Kelley as the #3 starter.

[SB Shock]

No. 7 rice has lost 3 games in row (Sam Houston St 12-13, Dallas Baptist 6-7, Michigan St 3-9)

[haysdb]

Our offense will be OK.

Our relief pitching is definitely a concern. It seems only Tyler Fleming has gives us any consistency out of the bullpen.

[shockerball05]

Food for thought... IFthe coaches think that Tim can be a starter and IF Maldonado gets healthy.... We don't have a closer on this team it's pretty apparent. I know Capra has wanted to start but he has bullpen experience could he be the closer? Just a wild idea, but something has got to change in our bullpen

[ShockerFever]

Wow.. Womack sucks.

Our relief pitching is horrid. We are extremely lucky to be 6-3 right now. It's amazing how our offense is carrying us.. normally it's the pitching picking up for the anemic offense.

I do agree the offense is a little misleading against the likes of LeMoyne and Harvard.

I'm really scared about our relief pitching. Did I say that already?

Somebody better step up or we're effed.

We better sweep. That's all I'm gonna say. Good comeback though.

[ShockerFever]

No. 7 rice has lost 3 games in row (Sam Houston St 12-13, Dallas Baptist 6-7, Michigan St 3-9)

Rice came back from a decent deficit to win at home against Western Carolina 12-11, so that streak is done. Judging by some of their scores, it looks like their pitching isn't as stout as previous years.. sounds familiar..

Rice hosts Creighton tomorrow.. Should be interesting..

[Shocker85]

On the Shox offense: After seeing all or part of every game, I think the offense will be OK, and better than last season. Most of the guys are driving the ball, and several have stepped-up their game on offense - most notably Coleman, THill, Dirks. Jones is an even trade or better than Brown on offense and he's a much better baserunner. Workman is struggling a bit and is not as good a hitter right now as Sublett was. Most anyone who plays LF is an upgrade, and I think Kenny Williams, Jr. and Bascue will be productive. DH is wide open, but DH wasn't particularly productive last year. TWeb is still solid, but streaky.

On the Defense: The infield makes more plays than we've seen in quite a while. Dusty Coleman is a treat to watch at SS. After a few years of mediocre to poor SS, he's bringing back memories of some of the Shocker greats. He gets to a ton of balls and he has a cannon attached to his right shoulder. Gillaspie is solid. Workman is solid, THill is solid. The OF is VERY fast at every position and we've seen plays in the spectacular realm already this year. TWeb's CS% isn't good right now, but some of that has to be hung on the pitchers. We've seen a few lapses with runners swiping 3B on the pitchers and some delayed stuff that is sort of inexplicable. I'm betting that little problem has the coaches' attention.

On the pitching: Musgrave is a stud. He has batters flailing and guessing. Shafer looked great today - whatever happened at LBSU wasn't evident today. Shafer and Musgrave should both have two wins but for the relievers. Oh, the relievers. This team has issues in the bullpen. Fleming has been good. Nanney has been good and bad. Most everyone else has had trouble - lots of trouble. Getting the starters' pitch counts up so they can go 7 or 8 innings can't happen soon enoungh and someone needs to step forward as the stopper/closer. Maybe it will be Fleming? One note on the big 8-run rally by Harvard - as I recall nearly all the hits except for the granny were bouncers through the infield. None were really hard smashes, but rather some seeing-eye jobs. That was the thing that was so frustrating because at any point during the rally if one of those balls get hit within range of an IF, it is probably a DP and there's far less damage.

it is early and the competition at home hasn't been especially tough, but I still think if the issues with the relief pitching get resolved then this team has a chance to win 40 games again this year.

BTW, my feet are finally thawed out. When is Spring?

--'85.

[Rosewood]

I told the story of tonight's game 4-5 times tonight to different people and it really sunk in how crazy and good this game was.

Dirks and Coleman, then Dirks and Coleman.

Shafer putting down 18 in a row after leading off with a HBP

I don't think I've ever seen 8 hits in a row, and the 9th was put in play! You have to give Harvard a lot of credit. It would be hard for a team to put together 8 consecutive hits in practice, yet alone in a game.

Another crazy aspect of this game: The harvard pitcher never had the game tied or the lead while he was on the mound. After the first batter, he was on the hook for the loss. His butt was on the bench after 7 and he wasn't coming back in. Well, after Harvard's 8 and then 2, he was on the hook for the win! In the end he got the ND.

Things couldn't have looked any worse starting the 9th. Just gave up 2 more, stranded the leadoff guy in the 8th. Down 5.

The game should have been over on a double play but we load the bases instead.

We manage to tie it after not scoring anything except for those two guys and their HRs.

And even the end was nutty. The pitcher did 4 straight balls to load the bases. The wild pitch that scored the winning run made it a 3-1 count. Runners at first and second didn't go like Kenny did. Had he gotten out we would have had runners at first and second with one out. A double play could have gotten harvard out of the jam. I was certain Kenny was about to get walked in.

It was a CLOSE play at the plate. The catcher had the ball just outside the dirt area and Kenny was only half way down the base line (I have a picture I'll upload later). The winning run almost was a total momentum killer.

Also, I think you get 40% off of the bookstore on monday for the 4 home runs = 10% off x4.

[shock10]

There was a freshman that pitched 2 innings in game one gave up 1 hit with 4 strikeouts looked better than Smith or Womack on a cold day. His name is Kemp if his control get a little better he needs to be in the mix 2 walks in 2 innings not good but better than 4 hits and NO outs or 3 hits and NO outs.